Pianist

One can learn so much by listening to the same pianist on different occasions. There’s always something new to take in, even when they play the same repertoire. I recently saw Yuja Wang give a dazzling recital in front of equally vivid artworks by Da

Sometimes, it is not such a bad thing to be ever so slightly naïve. Mao Fujita scooped silver medal at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (this was well before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine) and the piano world immediately took t

In Texas, two years ago, an 18-year-old South Korean pianist became the youngest ever gold-medallist at the 2022 Sixteenth Cliburn international Piano Competition. His Rachmaninov Concerto No 3 final round and awe-inspiring account of Liszt’s Transce

On these pages, Pianist covers the most basic stages of learning through a series of lessons by Hans-Günter Heumann. This issue we present a Czerny exercise which will help develop independance of each individual finger by holding various notes. No 9

BEGINNER Notes from the composer: I love the sea and hope I’m able to live near it one day. A seascape is an artwork depicting the ocean and in this little piece, the upward and downward movement of note patterns represent gently oscillating waves. S

BEGINNER/ INTERMEDIATE READ MELANIE SPANSWICK’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE While it is Steibelt’s fate to be remembered as the man who dared to challenge Beethoven and paid the price, he was for many years admired as a famous virtuoso keyboard player thro

BEGINNER Composed and published in 1913, French composer Mel Bonis’s Album pour les tout-petits (Album for the very young) Op 103 contains 20 easy pieces which feature some charmingly descriptive titles such as La puce (The flea), Douce amie (Sweet f

INTERMEDIATE Aside from his famous 48 Preludes and Fugues, Bach composed many shorter keyboard works including a set of 9 ‘Kleine’ (Small) Preludes, in which this wistful Prelude in G minor appears. Marked Allegretto and dolce, the short 18-bar piece

INTERMEDIATE Beethoven’s fourteenth sonata was dedicated to one of his students, the 17-year-old Giuletta Guicciodi, for whom he apparently had romantic feelings – though that ‘Moonlight’ nickname came much later. Beethoven described this piece as a

INTERMEDIATE French composer Gabriel Grovlez was taught by his mother (the child of one of Chopin’s students!) before attending the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with such piano luminaries as Fauré and Diémer. He toured Europe as an accompani

INTERMEDIATE Haydn wrote his Sonata in F Hob.XVI:23 in 1773, probably composing it for a harpsichord rather than the fortepiano, which became his preferred keyboard instrument a decade later. This slow F minor middle movement from the Sonata is surro

INTERMEDIATE Composed between 1888-1896, Scriabin’s 24 Preludes Op 11 were modeled after Chopin’s own set of 24 Preludes Op 28. They cover all 24 major and minor keys and they follow the same key sequence: C major, A minor, G major, E minor, D major,

INTERMEDIATE The Mazurkas Op 68 form a set of four mazurkas composed by Chopin between 1827 and 1849. They were posthumously published in 1855. A typical performance of all four mazurkas lasts around nine minutes. This fourth and final one from the s

INTERMEDIATE Schumann’s Albumblätter (Album Leaves) Op 124 is a collection of pieces assembled from earlier unpublished works after the success of his Album für die Jugend (Album for the Young) Op 68. The high opus number suggests that it is a late w

INTERMEDIATE This issue of Pianist features a spotlight on the Classical-period style along with an in-depth article on the often ‘underrated’ Classical composer, Clementi. The article is written by Nils Franke, who has also chosen two Clementi score

INTERMEDIATE READ IAGO NÚÑEZ’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE Venezuelan-born French composer Reynaldo Hahn epitomises the spirit of the fin de siècle artist. With a sophisticated multicultural upbringing, fluency in several languages, and friends like Marcel

INTERMEDIATE As mentioned earlier on, this issue of Pianist features a spotlight on the Classical-period style along with an in-depth article on the often ‘underrated’ Classical composer, Clementi. The article is written by Nils Franke, who has also

ADVANCED READ LUCY PARHAM’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE Unlike the majority of Liszt’s works for piano, the six Consolations, published in 1850, do not make overly virtuosic demands on the player. No 3 is by far the most famous, but this is hardly surprisi

Muzio Clementi (1752 -1832) is a name that resonates with pianists, piano teachers and piano students today. His reputation, however, rests on maybe half a dozen works that have secured a permanent place in the pianistic repertoire ever since they we

The Classical style, broadly speaking, describes music composed in the middle and latter half of the 18th century. Three prime figures stand out in the piano music of this period – or, by rights, four, because Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) is often forg